Outside In
by CaptainAperture
Summary: Ever since Riley was born, Joy has always secretly yearned to be human. When she manages to get her wish, it's now up to Riley to traverse her ever-shifting mindscape to find a way to talk to the emotion in control of her body and get things back to normal before the line between her and Joy blurs too far...
1. Prologue (Redux of Joy)

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Whelp. First fanfic. Gonna leave a little disclaimer here and say that Inside Out belongs to Disney-PIXAR. Little unsure as to my characterization as well as some dialogue meant to parallel the movie, so feel free to leave a review. Good, bad, doesn't matter. Every little bit counts.

* * *

Fate is a funny thing.

Most people like to believe that they're the master of their own destinies. They believe that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to, corrupt the inevitable in their favor. Regardless of whether or not they have any chance of swimming with the sharks, they'll willingly dive in and expect to come out in one piece.

Fate is what guides us on the path of life, through thick and thin, leaving us none the wiser to its' invisible presence. However, what if fate _wasn't_ some unseen force? What if it had its' own hopes and dreams, its' own strenghts and weaknesses?

What if fate _**didn't** want to be in control anymore?_

The story you're about to read may ring familiar to a fable you've heard before, yet nothing like it. It is the story of a girl who has to realize that life isn't peaches and cream, and the story of a woman who has to lose everything in order to get what she needs most. This is a story that, while different, rings alike with its' companion in that they both start with one question.

" _ **Do you ever look at someone and wonder,"What is going on inside their head?**_ "

* * *

 _I remember when it all started._

 _The day I-...er...Riley was born_.

Darkness.

An infinite canvas of tarish black nothing, No beginning, no end, no...nothing. If you ended up in there, there'd be nothing. Pure, unfiltered, concentrated nothing. Practically, a static black hole by any comparison.

Then, there was light.

Clusters and pricks of energy, as radiant as the rays of our golden sun, started to emerge. They floated aimlessly for a few seconds, like cosmic jellyfish in an atheial void, sentience not yet an aspect of their existence. Mere moments later, they started to cluster together, swirling into a burst of cosmic energy like no man has ever seen with their naked eyes before. The energy kept rushing around itself, a whirlwind spinning faster, faster, faster, until...

Light consumed the dark for only a few seconds, leaving as soon as it had made its' presence known. In its' wake, it left behind something greater than darkness.

It left **Joy**.

 _It was so exciting! I mean, not as exciting as when managed to get our first goal in hockey- trust me, NOTHING'S ever going to beat that one- but this was definately something for the record books._

 _I remember what it felt like when I was...made. You ever get that feeling, the one where you know something good's around the corner, and you know it's coming, and when it happens, you feel like nothing could ever go wrong? That's what it felt like when I came in. But that's not the best part about that day..._

The woman, taking note of her light green floral dress and skin as yellow as a freshly bloomed sunflower basking under the first golden rays of spring, noticed something off in the distance before her, almost beckoning to her like a flame to a moth. Her aura illuminated her every step as if she were a living lightbulb.

 _I don't know what drew me to the console- if you could call it that. I mean, when I first came around, it was just a button! You could barely fit anybody else around it! It was almost as if it were meant for only one of us..._

She makes her way to the small white pedistal, a large circular button at center stage.

 _It looked so inviting! I mean, nobody else was there to push it. Call it curiousity, but if nobody else was going to do it, I felt obligated to see just what it did._

The woman lays a single hand upon the button. She takes a breath, looking down at the podium.

 **Click.**

Instantaneously, the podium begins to glow a vibrant yellow as the large expanse of nothing rots away to unveil a large image, floating in the void. The gentle laughter of a newborn is heard as the picture comes into focus. It shows the faces of a man and woman. The woman's long brown hair was relatively unkempt, her complexion a tired albeit glowing red. She wore a colored set of glasses, a shade Joy couldn't exactly reconize at the time.

The man looked slim, his shorter hair equally tatered. His slim face ended in a broad chin that was accompanied by a moustache almost resembling the harriest of catterpillars.

"There she is.." the woman coos, her tone soft and comforting, in a sense.

"Hey **Riley** ," the man softly exclaims, as to not disturb the bundle in his wife's arms. " _We're_ your parents!"

Joy takes her hand off of the button for a moment, looking at herself.

 _I remember the first time I saw Mom and Dad. They looked so peaceful, so calm. Thoughts raced through my head at a million miles per hour. Who were these people? What's going on?_

 _And then, they spoke. They said her name._

 _Riley._

 _Was..was that my name? And if so, were these beautiful people my parents? I mean, the resemblance was a little off, but this was a mind-shattering revelation. I-I had to talk to them!_

"You are?"

 _No response._

"Hello?!"

 _Nothing._

Joy leaves her post at the button and walks towards the screen, an expression of confusion and slight fear on her face. The people on the viewscreen continue to coo at camera. She stands at the projection's screen, looking up at the massive faces.

" **Hell-ooo**! I'm right here! It's me, Riley... _right_?"

 _It was a trying moment to say the least. They were literally inches away from me. No matter how loud I yelled, how much I could do...they couldn't hear me. Not a peep..._

"Come on! What do I have to-"

Joy looks back at the pedistal, an odd idea popping into her head as she scampers her way back to the button.

 _At that point, I had realized something. If they couldn't hear me..._

Joy pushes the button once again, the distinct giggling she had heard moments prior starts up again. A distinct grin grows across her face as she pushes harder into the button.

And in that moment, something unique happened. A light yellow orb pops into existance, slotting itself into a track that corrodes away at the void, leaving behind a vibrant shifting colorscape behind her.

 _The first memory orb! You could feel the energy in the air, the sheer possibilities coming to mind! I left the console for a moment just to get a look at the thing..._

Suddenly, the shrill, eardrum-piercing cries of an infant started to droll out. Joy turns to face the console.

 _...And that's when things got complicated._

Standing at the console was a short and stout woman, her short arms barely reaching the button. Her woolen sweater, white as the clouds in the skies, raised slightly as she reached.

Joy quickly runs over to the little lady, trying to get her attention.

"...Excuse me? What are you-"

The blue invader looks up to Joy, taking her hand off of the console for a moment.

"Are you Joy?"

Joy gives a look of confused concern.

"Actually...My name is-"

The woman holds a hand out.

" **Sadness**."

 _Things only got more complicated from there. Over time, we got upgrades to the console, Headquarters, Heck, the Personality Islands are beyond description! Not to mention the other emotions who started coming in!_

 _Fear, Digust, Anger, it always seemed as if Headquarters was growing every day! Quite literally, in some cases._

 _But.._

 _I still have thoughts. Thoughts, that bring me back to the day Riley born._

 _I think about what it'd be like..._

 _...What it'd be like_

 _To be **her**._

 _I mean, I'm Riley's Joy! I'm the part of her that makes her happy, brings the spark to her life! Not to gloat, but I've made sure to control whenever I could so she could be happy..._

 _But I want to be there. I want to feel what she feels! I want to be there, taste things I've never tasted, smell smells that I've never smelled in Headquarters._

 _I want to talk to Mom and Dad **in person**._

 _..._

 _Overall, she's happy. We're happy! Everything is in its' right place, and life couldn't be better!_

 _Besides, Riley's **11** now. What could possibly go wrong?_


	2. The Idea (Mystery Science Fear-ter 3000)

AUTHOR'S NOTE

First off, a _sincere_ thanks to everybody who's checked out the story thus far. Absolutely digging the fact that you guys are interested in this concept. Second off, I edited a few things in _Chapter One_ to help make things a bit easier to understand off the bat. Third, pardon if this chapter's a tad wordy. Once again, _Inside Out_ is by _Disney*PIXAR_ , and excuse any minor errors in regards to canonical details, characters, and grammar, but feel free to tell me in the reviews if I screw up.

Also, as of July 3rd, 2015, this is now the 111th story in the _Inside Out-chive_

Make of that what you will.

* * *

The bedroom for Riley's emotions was relatively quaint. The room's ceiling and walls were rounded off, giving the light purple walls a smooth, dome-like feel to the room. The place was " _communal_ ," for lack of better word.

Off on one end of the room was a standard-looking bed and nightstand. Well, " _standard_ " as a highly-rectangular bed with scorch marks and a nightstand with a garbage pail full of destroyed alarm clocks can be. A novelty stress toy, designed to look like a smoke detector, sat on the corner of the nightstand _, ironically_ looking as if it were about to burst into flames at any second. The nightstand had two large drawers that mainly consisted of businesswear and ties _. Take your guess as to which had which_.

On another, a decadent looking bed, almost like something out of an old fairy tale flick. Four poles stood around the frame holding up an illustrious curtain of green fabrics over and around the bedding proper. A massive mirror covered in lights and a generous amount of cosmetics took up the grand majority of the nightstand while a fancy-looking yet barely legible clock took up space on the wall. An elaborate wardrobe aligned itself to the wall, an equally impressive mirror beside it.

Another end of the room sat one of those fancy adjustable mattresses that _never_ manages to operate just as well as they show in the commercials. An adorably steriotypical teddy bear sat on a pillow to the right of the nightstand, which had a well-worn dream journal sitting on one end and a _Quote-a-Day_ calandar on the other. A relatively intricate adustable lamp ( _made from various hinges and poles connecting to a solid metal grey headpiece took_ ) up most of the nightstand. A motivational poster of a kitten hanging in a tree proudly proclaiming " ** _HANG IN THERE BABY!_** " along the bottom was tacked to the wall. A simple dresser set itself on the unoccupied side of the bed.

Another " _corner_ " basically contained a small-looking waterbed that one could say was filled with tears. A box of tissues and a a stack of relatively weighty angsty supernatural romance novels sat itself on the nightstand, a pail of empty tissue boxes and used tissues alongside it. On the wall was a poster gothically advertizing " _Sundown_ _ **XII**_ _: Revenginizing of The Sixth-Bloods_ " in all of its' melodramatic glory. A hanger or two neatly proposed a tidy woolen sweater and dark blue pants, a few pairs of idential slippers neatly sat on a tear-stained rug.

Lastly, there was a major exception to this trend. Off in the corner by the door was messy, yet simple set-up. An intricately-woven hammock, hung by a hook on the wall and a pole, hung itself high above the rest of the miniature bedrooms. A lamp made from an old golden memory ( _none of the important ones, of course_ ), the piece used to hold a globe in place, and a black sheet sat itself on a small bedstand which stood on about four or five relatively weighty angsty supernatural romance novels " _borrowed_ " from the set-up directly across from it. Other than that, a large circular rug alternating _yellow_ - _blue_ - _yellow_ - _blue_ - _ect_. positioned itself at the center of the area, an edge just under the hammock. A finely-polished accordion sat on a small wooden chair, some sheet music in a stand right in front of it. A few dresses were hung over the chair. Posters for the first few " _Fairy Unicorn Adventure_ " dreams were taped onto the wall (With the odd exception of " _Fairy Unicorn Adventure 3_ ," which was not only framed but had the name " _Leslie_ " written in cursive over the stylized unicorn at center stage), in addition to some posters of actual... ** _human_** hockey players somewhat obscured by the thick, wide books currently holding up the bedstand. A few glow-in-the-dark stars positioned themselves just above the half of the hammock attached directly to the wall.

Now, you're probably wondering why I just spent the last hour and a half describing furniture and not delivering the next part of a pseudo-intellectual " _what if_ " based off of a movie that primarily takes place inside the mind of an eleven-year-old girl.

Don't worry, we're getting there.

* * *

 _Diary!_

 _Well, here we are! Tomorrow's the big move! You would **NOT** believe the day I had!_

 _For starters, we did a lot of packing today. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Riley, how are you going to sleep tonight? Didn't you pack your bed?" Well, fortunately enough, they're not taking it until tomorrow. I'm gonna have to wake up suuuper early, though!_

Joy continued to quickly jot down her thoughts, the light scribbling noise from her pencil drifting weightlessly through the room. Her pyjamas, a light blue one-piece that looked like a fusion between overalls and a dress, gently meshed with her light aura as she swayed in her hammock.

 _Mom and Dad are working pretty hard too, so I didn't really get to "talk" with them. Dad seemed to be in the heat of things, considering the fact he's driving us, and the whole company legal mumbo-jumbo thing I've overheard him talking about. But, hey! He's got this! I mean, he's got a T-shirt with the company's name on it! He's practically there!_

 _But that's not the most exciting thing. Two words: **San Francisco**! Mom said it'd be a day or two to drive down there, and for all I know, it'll be worth it! The sights, the sounds, just... **EVERYTHING**!_

 _Mom also said that we'd be going through the Golden Gate Bridge when we actually get there! Can you imagine it, Diary? **THE** Golden Gate Bridge! I know it's not actually gold (wouldn't that be amazing?!), but still_!

 _Sadness kept trying for the console today._

Joy looks up from her little gilded book at a currently snoozing Sadness, the emotion gently rocking haphazardly on her bed, her overly long nightgown remaining fairly static. Her face turns to a slight grimace before returning to her writing.

 _I mean, I know she means well...but she's kinda...sorta..._

 _A burden-_

Joy looks back at Sadness. The little blue emotion has found a vague sort-of "sweet spot," pulling up the covers and moving in sync with her bed.

Joy looks back at her writing, at Sadness, and back at her diary.

 _Sadness has a distinct way of...helping, in that she provides no actual help-_

Joy furrows her brow, uncomfortable with her phrasing.

 _Sadness is arguably the most least useful-_

 _Sadness...Sadness..._

 _Oh, **Sadness**..._

Joy sighs, closing her eyes for a moment. What good was Sadness for, in her eyes?

 _Sadness has nice glasses. 'Nuff said._

 _Other than that, not much else happened today. We talked with Megan over video chat, and it seems like she and the rest of the team are going to miss me pretty badly. Regardless, I kept a stiff upper lip, a swing in my step, and I told her we'd talk when I got to San Francisco. I tell you, she'd **never** give up on me!_

 _That being said...Diary..You may have noticed that I've been using " **I** " instead of " **We** " in relation to what's been going on with Riley. I know I sound...selfish, in that sense, but..._

 _Diary...can you keep a secret? I mean, there **is** a lock on you for a reason, but.._

 _This secret is more important than anything. If any of the other emotions ever found out about this...they'd kill me...Not literally, but..still._

 _Okay.._

 _I still want to be Riley. Not just a part of her. I mean, I know I swore this whole way of thinking off to Fear and Sadness..._

Joy looks up from her diary again, looking at her portly peer and the empty bed usually accompanied by Fear ( _who just so happened to be on dream duty that night_ ) before looking back down.

 _...And Disgust and Anger weren't even **around** when that happened, but...it's just..._

I _love Riley. I've always been there for her! She's my life. Literally. But, I want to go out into the world, see life from a new perspective! I want to know what it truly feels like to have the sun on your face, to feel the cool breeze of a day in June. I want to know the thrill of being out there, on the ice! I mean, I do, but..._

 _ **I don't**._

 _Just one day. That's all I need. All I need to know what it's like to be there. All I need to see more than my fill. All I need to genuinely talk to Mom and Dad, for real. All I need to know what it's truly like to be Riley._

 _All I need to know what it's like to be human._

 _After that, I'll be satisfied! I'd never ever **EVER** want to leave again!_

 _But...that can never happen. Headquarters, as far as I know, has nothing like that..._

 _...but that doesn't mean I can't **learn** up! Be right back!_

Joy quickly closes the book, pulling a key from her blue sleeper and locking it before jumping out of her hammock with a determined look upon her face. She slinks around to the doorway, cautiously peeking out into the central hub of Headquarters before sneaking out.

* * *

Fear and the dream seemed to be in a battle of sorts in the background as Joy peered over the shelves of various binders of varying thickness, arranged alphabeticaly. She hurriedly scanned over the names of the binders, each labeled on their respective spines.

 _Basic Console Maintenance...No...Early Childhood Proceedures..No...Core Memory Retreval Procedure?_

 _Pfft. When would **that** ever be necessary?_

Joy quickly made her way through the shelves before eventually coming across her prize..or so it seemed to be.

It was a relatively light binder, the contents being no more than twenty pages, at least. Its' name, displayed both on the spine and across the cover was " _Mind Manual 19: Emergency Procedures_ _,_ " and was written in big, bright, friendly letters. If the title was by any means an indicator, this was Joy's ticket to her dreams.

The emotion gives a hushed " _YES_!" before shushing herself out of fear that the titular-

"Joy?"

Well, speak of the devil.

Joy immediately jumps out of view, ducking into the alcove near the binder shelves. Her heart starts pounding as the horror of her secret entering reality becomes a possibility. Everything she had been thinking of, _dreaming_ of, now balanced on these precious seconds.

Fear, on the other hand, had sworn he had seen something. I mean, yeah, " _Dad's Driving Scares Me VII_ " was as gripping as it was utterly cliche trite seemingly made to capitalize on the fact that the move was in the morning.

So, yeah, it was an assuredly spine-tingling dream...except whenever Fear was cracking wise about it as if he were on some _mysterious science-fiction_ television show from the 1990's that Riley doesn't even know exists.

Irelevant references aside, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. Maybe it was the dream proper. Maybe it was because he was on his second cup of Earl Gray tea after the first one was spat out in shock as " _Dad_ " decided to imitate the Dukes of Hazard on the Grand Canyon after doing donuts on the freeway the entire way down without even _thinking_ of using his signal lights. Maybe it was just the fact that he had been on dream duty for the last _five nights in a row_ and had to suffer though a double feature of dreams in which everybody was a clown person in the first, only to discover in the second that they were all " _Brocculons from the Planet Vegit-ar_."

Fear continues to look behind him, ignoring the outrageous mental picture show before him.

"Hello? Anybody back there?"

He looks into his mug, half-empted ( _or half-full, as Joy would put it_ ), and started to consider whether or not to start taking a less powerful mix for whenever he had to pull these longer hours.

Joy stays static in the alcove, miraculously undetected, as of now.

Fear takes one last look from his chair, taking a decent breath before futilly reminding himself that the mustachioed madman managing to do flips off of other cars was only the results of some _hack_ in Dream Productions and only coincidentally resembled Dad.

Joy leans around the corner, breathing a sigh of relief as Fear returned to his duties. With that, she grabs the binder, and lightly runs back to the bedroom, making sure as to not make a single noise on the way up

She had a _lot_ of reading to do tonight...and not a lot of time to do it.


	3. The Fine Print (How to Steal a Life)

Author's Note

Hey, everybody. Just wanted to say that this chapter's a tad shorter than the other two, primarily due to **A)** Narrative reasons, and **B)**...I'm not going to lie to you, the next chapter's going to be a _doozy_. That said, I appreciate all of the favorites, follows, reviews, views, ect. It's awesome that you guys are actually liking this, and you're awesome as a result.

 _ **Inside Out**_ belongs to **_Disney*PIXAR_** , and if I screw up in terms of grammar, canonical details, ect, feel free to tell me in the reviews.

Also, in response to **mikk720h** 's question, no. Sorry to disappoint, but this isn't a ship fic...at all. Still, thanks for asking, and I hope you still enjoy this story. In addition, sorry if anybody's confused by the tense changes here and there. Somebody told me in the reviews that it was a bit confusing here and there, and I can understand.

* * *

The Mind Manuals were a certainly essential part of one's understanding of how the mind truly worked. Originally discovered around the time Riley had started to develop basic mental capacities and motor skills, the collection started out simply as a single binder among empty shelves, like a singular entity among a sea of emptness ( _sound familiar?_ ). Soon, the binder became many as the girl's consciousness evolved further and further.

Fear, to this day, is the _only_ one who has actively read all of the manuals and actively applies the knowledge gained in guiding Riley. The other emotions?

 _Not so much_.

Sadness came close to finishing the manuals, sheerly out of boredom and Joy's commands to keep her busy and away from the console. She stopped, mainly due to other forms of literature proving to be more gripping.

Disgust tried, and made it about... _three_ manuals, at most, before proclaiming that it was, quote, " _boring as all heck_ " and strutted off to fix her make-up before Riley had woken up that morning.

Anger started getting frustrated before even starting _, gently_ argueing that he could work all of this out on his own by practically launching Fear ( _whom had been trying to help the "learning process"_ ) halfway across Headquarters.

Joy, aside from knowing they were there, has _never_ picked up a single one and actually even flipped through it... _aside_ from the times she gave them to Sadness. She always shrugged off reading the confounded things, considering that she was the oldest emotion there _, surely she'd know everything by_ _ **experience**_ _!_

And so, we return to Joy, feverishly flipping through the infernal papers in the hopes of finding her ace in the hole before it was time to go to work.

Now, **_Manual 19_** ( _as stated previously_ ) dealt with emergency situations, what to do in case of the worst possible scenario coming to reality. For serious cases of physical to emotional trauma, from the womb to the tomb, this binder was absolutely key to the uninformed emotion.

However, in the case of our cheerful cohort, finding an escape clause was harder than it looked. For how small the thing looked, it was a mouthful, to say the least.

Joy was running out of time, and in her moment of need, she finds it.

To cut the chase, here is what Joy read:

 _ **Core Personality Transplant; What to Do in Case of Console Shut-down.**_

 _On rare occasions, the personality controlled by the console can go "rogue," shutting off any and all interface interactions. This can be signified by the console losing any and all pigmints/colors and turning a thick, murky black color. This can be caused by the following:_

 _-_ _Loss of any or all Core Memories._

 _-_ _Loss of any or all Emotions._

 _-_ _Inactivity._

 _-_ _Physical stimuli from the world (Injury, Trauma, Ect)._

 _It is important to detect potential signs of console failure as soon as they arise and act accordingly. However, it is entirely possible for unresponsiveness to arise at any moment._

 _If there is no means to fix the console conventionally, or by rectifying and/or reacting to the listed stimuli accordingly, there is only one other option:_ _ **Core Personality Transplant.**_

 _ **Core Personality Transplant**_ _is the process in which the personality currently guided by Headquarters is switched out with that of a singular emotion, while the former personality takes their place._

 _In order to execute the procedure, one must insert a_ _ **Core Reboot Key**_ _into the_ _ **Core Memory Conduit**_ _(normally found the center of one's Headquarters, however this may vary depending on whether or not one has activated the_ _ **Puberty Subroutine**_ _(See_ _ **Mind Manual 37**_ _). One is provided in case of emergency, however they can be requested if need be from_ _ **Motor Skills**_ _. Please note that a_ _ **Core Reboot Key**_ _can only be used_ _ **once **__before becoming inert._

 _Upon insertion of the_ _ **Core Reboot Key**_ _, the emotion whom has initiated the protocol will be temporarily removed from Headquarters to allow for mental readjustment before taking control of the body and mind. This process will take a few moments, and one may feel a slight pricking sensation in the medula oblongata, however, this is completely natural and not a sign of anything going wrong._

 _Whilst the emotion who initiated the Core Memory Transplant will take "control" of the body, the former personality will retreat into Headquarters. There, the emotions still remaining after the transfer process will need to brief said personality about what has happened, and allow for any confusion about what has happened._

Joy sat in her hammock, a grin the size of Texas on her face. All of these years, and the means to her greatest wish was practically under her nose. That said, puting it in this form was definately a good deterrent.

Although, the whole " _Pub-erty_ " thing that the section mentioned seemed a little intriguing, she got an idea of what she needed to do in order to get what she wanted. Besides, the thing seemed to go on **FOREVER** , and she needed to get some sleep...not before writing a few things down in her diary.

Yet, much like a teenager agreeing to a terms and conditions document on a fancy new phone, she chooses to neglect one thing. The thing that everybody neglects, at least once in their lives. The thing that has come back to humanity over and over with no end in sight.

 _ **The fine print.**_

If Joy had continued reading through the entire chapter, she would have come across something that would have changed her tune, and would have sent her and Riley down a path different than the one that will come.

Here is the passage, _verbatim_ :

 ** _Most Importantly, Core Personality Transfer is_** ** _PERMANENT_** ** _. Unless another Core Reboot Key is inserted into the Core Memory Conduit, the two personalities WILL start to change mentally, and in terms of the formerly prominent personality, physically. In order to fill their new roles, memories will be lost and gained, Personality Islands will be changed, and the previous personality_** ** _WILL ADJUST INTO THE EMOTION THEY HAVE REPLACED._**

 _In conclusion, the process of **Core Personality Transfer** is nothing to take lightly. It ultimately involves you or one of your coworkers having to sacrifice their entire personality- **who they are** -in order to protect the whole._

 _However, there have been accounts of accidental or even **intentional** activation of the procedure long before anything that would require it. In case of unjust or accidental **Core Personality Transfer** , see **Appendix-** **113** **.**_

Whoops.


	4. The Calm (Insert Planes Joke Here)

_**Author's Note**_

Hey. Did some edits on the last chapter due to some basic spacing and grammerical errors. Should be cleared up by now. Hope you guys didn't notice that, all things considered. Also, sorry if it seemed like I took a while on this one. Just gonna say that I'm not gonna promise when a chapter's coming.

One or two of you have been bringing up in the reviews whether or not **_Appendix-_** ** _113_** will be playing a part later on in the story, and how this will decide the twin fates of Joy and Riley. All I can say at this point is that I cannot say anything.

 _ **Inside Out**_ belongs to **_Disney*PIXAR._** If I manage to screw anything up in terms of grammar, characterization, or minor canonical details from the film proper, please feel free to tell me in the reviews or shoot me a PM. I genuinely appreciate your feedback on the story, and would love nothing more than to hear what you think about it.

* * *

Now, you may have come to wonder throughout these dawning chapters why I've chosen not to exactly focus on Joy's cohorts or Riley herself in the here and now. I could give you the answer by simply saying that Joy, as a singular entity, is about to break just about every rule in the books in order to persue her dream and the story of a dreamer who refuses to pull back the curtain and see the man behind it tends to be more intriguing, striking to the common man.

However, that, my friends, would be a bold-faced **lie**.

Ultimately, there is another side to this story. And in order to attain this side, change must happen. Change, of proportions grander than one could ever assume, will happen. Change, that will lead to stakes both great and small. Change that begins with a choice in of itself...

"I'm taking dream duty tonight!"

Joy looked unsurprisingly eagar about this topic to her cohorts, standing in the dorrway as they all gathered and readied themselves for a night of rest after the day's journey. Sadness was already in bed, gently trying to keep herself still on the wobbling mattress that, if it wasn't translucent and filled with water, one could assume she slept on a disfigured amalgamation of off-brand gelatin from the supermarket. Anger was off in his area, settling in for the night. Disgust was off in her own little world, fiddling around with the curlers in her hair and the medicated face mask that, if you had looked at her while she was wearing it, you would had assumed she hadn't put _anything_ on it.

Fear wasn't in the communal bedroom, seeing as he assumed that he'd be taking dream duty... _again_ , and was out pouring himself some tea, this blend weaker than the previous nights'.

You see, Fear tended to take the bullet for his fellow emotions in terms of dream duty. Yes, he did get relieved of his duties most of the time by Joy ( _Hey, there wouldn't be_ _ **seven**_ _Fairy Unicorn Adventure dreams with talks of an eigth in the works if it wasn't for her putting a good word in!_ ), but whenever she wasn't on duty, Anger was always burnt out from the day's events, Disgust said she needed her beauty sleep, and Joy always perferred Sadness to not have dream duty...almost _pathologically_. It didn't mean that they didn't have dream duty now and again ( _Trust me, it was a_ _ **GODSEND**_ _when Anger took dream duty after Riley's fifth Halloween. Who knew they could actually make revenge dreams over getting dental floss and raisins instead of candy?_ ), but he always seemed to be the guy picked out to stay up all night whenever nobody else wanted to.

Maybe it was his _interesting_ personality.

"Yeah..Sure," Disgust replied, obviously more interested in the complexion of her skin, despite being made of pure energy particles that are physically incapable of actually degrading in any sort unless, in this case, Riley managed to score severe cranial damage, or decided to check her bags in at the _Hotel Mortem._ Then again, never say never.

"...Okay then! I'll go get Fear, and-

"Joy?" Sadness pipes up, looking from her depressing squalor at the gilded feeling. Joy immediately looks at her coworker, trying **VERY** hard as to not come across as a massive _buzzkillington_.

"Yes... _Sadness_?" Joy replies, her tone slightly sounding more forced than usual.

"I was wondering," Sadness says as she tries to sit herself up as to face her friend, " _putting on_ " her glasses. "...If...maybe I could have dream duty tonght?"

As soon as the words " _If_ " and " _I_ " and " _Dream duty_ " left Sadness's lips, Joy mentally groaned of frustration and possible worry. If you could go inside of her head ( _don't worry, we're getting there_ ) an entire 70-piece orchestra just clammed up to hear the world's **dumpiest** tuba solo.

 _First off, Sadness "had" dream duty for one year. That year being Riley's first year. As in, year zero. As in, Sadness having absolutely **NO** self control and waking Riley up in the middle of the night! I mean, she had reason every now and again-you know, typical baby stuff, but there were some nights where she didn't even let Mom and Dad **SLEEP**! Not to mention just being a wet blanket (well, Fear was technically the cause of that for a few nights after Riley's third birthday with... **Jingles**...but I'm getting off track)._

 _The point is, Sadness **CANNOT** have dream duty tonight._

 _ **ESPECIALLY** tonight._

Sadness looks at Joy with an almost excited expression. I mean, it's Sadness we're talking about, but she almost looks like a puppy begging for a treat.

A bipedal, blue, glasses-wearing, depressed puppy whose bark was equal to her bite, in that there was none.

"Well...You already have it!"

Sadness's face lights up like a melancholy Christmas tree.

"I-I do?"

"Yeah, I mean, you do it every night!"

Sadness's face immediately returns to its' namesake, albeit somewhat confused.

"W-what?"

Joy walks back into the room, looking down at her peer.

"You see, Sadness, you have dreams every night! So, technically, if you were to do dream duty tonight, you're basically putting twice as much work on the line."

"B-but, that doesn't make an-any sense!"

Joy takes a breath as it seems as if her coworker was about to have a breakdown.

"Okay...Okay, Okay, Sadness, how's about this: I'll take dream duty tonight, and the next time I have it, you can come help out! Is that good?

Sadness grabs a tissue from her nightstand, running it under her nose.

"I...I guess..."

"That's my girl!"

She entusiastically hooks the air as she turns out of the bedroom, reentering Headquarters.

 _Almost there, Joy..._

"Fear!"

Joy enthusiastically calls out to her friend, who was currently sitting at the console, sipping his tea as he waited for the mental picture show to start up. AS soon as he hears her, he's taken in shock, performing a small spit take with his drink, and falling out of his chair. He scrambles on the floor for a moment before getting up to face Joy, who was making her way to his position.

"Joy? Wh-What are you doing up? I'm on dream duty, remember?"

"Change of plans: I'm on duty tonight."

Fear's taken aback for a moment.

"Wait...You're actually doing it tonight?"

"Yep! You've been at it for a while now, and I thought it'd only be fair if you got a break. You're okay with that, right?"

Fear takes a sip of his tea, his expression brightening up.

"Yeah, totally! It's been a while since I got some shut-eye. You still remember everything?"

"Pfft! Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

Fear chuckles as he starts to make his way up to the beds.

"Thanks, Joy! You're a life-saver!"

"Anytime, Fear! Night!"

Fear calls out from the door.

"Night!"

The slightly audibe closing of a door gives Joy a genuine sigh of relief. The other emotions were off readying to hit the sack for the night, leaving Joy with bit of entertainment, but...that was by no means the REAL show...

It had taken approximately an hour before Joy was completely sure that her cohorts were off in their own personal slumberlands. In that time, she couldn't help but let her mind wander as she watched the dream presented absent-mindedly, numerously running through her plan for the night.

It went something like this:

 _Find the key._

 _Take the key._

 _Open up the Core Memory coduit...thingy._

 _Find the slot._

 _Insert key into slot._

 _Turn key._

She didn't really have an iota of an idea as to what step seven would lead to, but she clearly knew that it would lead to:

 ** _I'm Riley!_**

As you can see, this was a clearly _flawless_ plan.

Joy was quietly running around the entire Headquarters, the light _pitter-pattering_ of her feet making barely a sound. A determined, albeit tense look scrawled itself on her face as she was scampering around, the dream ( _a thinly-veiled remake of the classic "I Can_ _ **FLY**_ _" albeit starring semi-anthropomorphized planes for..._ _ **some**_ _reason_ ) whirring in the background as she desperately scoured the atrium for the precious key she desired. I mean, you'd think that they'd keep something important like that clearly marked and visible for whenever someone needed it most, but shock of all shocks, it wasn't.

That said, it wasn't like there were too many hiding places for such a thing in HQ. There was the loading/unloading area for whenever the Train of Thought had a delivery. There were the short-term memory tracks, which physically couldn't be a hiding spot for the blasted thing. There was the " _kitchen_ ," which basically consisted of a small cabinet or two of Fear's teas, a coffee maker, and a rather _sweet_ water cooler/heater. There was the Mind Manual alcove, which, aside from holding its' namesakes, had nothing else. Center Headquarters, with a couch off on one side, and a chair or two off to the side, in addition to the console and a chair already placed. Only other things Joy hadn't checked were the bedroom and the conduit itself, and she had already checked under the rug at the door **TO** the bedroom, and came out empty-handed.

And even if she had checked the bedrooms, she already knew the place top to bottom. The only key in there was to her _diary_.

Joy stops a moment after running back down to the hypothetical center stage of the place, her back facing the console and the viewscreen. Her eyes keep darting towards all of the areas she had already checked, her metaphorical heart pumping at the speed of fifteen cheetas, nine jaguars, and a hedgehog, combined. She had seen through everything, left no corner unchecked, and trifled through just about every nook and cranny...except the afforementioned conduit. Whispering it's name, she runs towards it.

Now, the Core Memory Conduit is an essential part of a person's mental trap. As we all know, it basically allows the ability to harness the pure mental energies of a defining moment in one's life, and funnel them into the creation of a psychological island that acts as a literal aspect of one's personality. Much like an old portable gaming system needs physical batteries, the islands are in a direct relationship with their respective memories. If a memory is removed, the island looses power. If another person, like you or I, attempts to get a specific reaction from a person whose island relating to said reactions is down, it's like trying to jumpstart a car with an explosive attached to it, _specifically_ armed to detonate if the engine won't start on the first try.

Thing practically goes up in flames...and falls to the **_Recesses_**...

More on that later.

The emotion reaches down, tapping the switch on the top of the conduit. She pulls back a few steps, watching the device spring out from the floor. The pricks of light stemming from the circular column shiver for a moment, before quickly regaining their brilliant sheens. The orbs within continued to play their respective memories on a continuous loop as Joy started to look the thing over, peering inbetween each memory and feeling the column itself in the vain hopes of finding a secret compartment. She runs her hand gently up and down the miniature pillar, until...

 _Click._

Joy grows a curious grin as she pulls her hand away from the device.

In seconds, a small panel pulls away from the lower half of the conduit, revealing our _MacGuffin_ for the evening.

A small key, much like the one that would go to a safe, hanging off a quaint, little hook.

 _Is..Is this..._

Joy softly takes the key, holding it in her hand. All this time, all of these years...

All of a sudden, a second click, this time emerging from the top of the conduit, rings slightly. Joy stands back up, clutching the key in her chest as she observes what appeared to be the top of the conduit rotating in a clockwise direction before popping off, as if it were latched to the rest of the device. Joy walks up to see what the device revieled.

A small key-hole, covered by a glass shield attached by a latch.

Simple as that.

Excited thoughts rushed through Joy's head like a train running a million miles an hour. This was it. Fate and destiny collided in a one-in-a-million incident that played in _her_ favor. She flips the glass casing up, the key primed and ready.

Joy looks at the small item in her hand, held slightly skyward, and looks at the keyhole. She pulls her hand back...

 _ **I...I can't do this.**_

Joy stops herself from inserting the key, mere centimeters from the slot. Aside from the dream continuing to run without a proper audience, the air in Headquarters is as still as the grave.

 _...Riley needs me. We're in the middle of crossing the entire **country** , for goodness's sake! She needs me more than anybody else. More than Disgust, more than Anger, more than Fear, more than.._

 _ **Sadness.**_

Joy pulls the key back, holding it in front of her face, her breathing as steady as a heartbeat.

 _...But, if I don't do this, I'll never be able to know what it's really like..._

She takes a deep breath, pulling the clenched key to her head as her eyes close.

 _Pull yourself together, Joy! Besides, if things do go wrong (which is **highly** unlikely), Fear knows what to do._

Joy holds the key out in front of her again, her eyes fully focused on her prize.

 _Riley will be fine. The others will find out, they'll explain what happened, and she'll be back by morning. After that, you'll apologize, they'll understand that you've gotten this out of your system, and everybody can get back to focusing on the move._

Joy takes a deep breath.

 _You'll **never** get this opportunity again, Joy._

She inserts the key.

 _Besides, you said it yourself. Riley's eleven now. She can handle what's going to happen. What could **possibly** go wrong?_

She turns the key.

And that's when things went horribly, horribly **_wrong_**.


	5. Joy And Riley (Inside Out)

_**Author's Note**_

...

...It's been a long time...

Hey, everybody. I'm back. First off, I genuinely want to apologize for keeping everybody waiting on the continuation for this story. The haitus itself was wrought out of a combination of school starting back up...and my own laziness. Couple that with a decent case of writer's block, and that was not a good. Regardless, it would have been genuinely cruel of me to leave this story in the air, especially with everybody getting into it (truly appreciate the comments and follows and favs and such). So, in order to not end up with another situation where we go about three months without a single syllable, from here on out, expect at least one chapter a month, moreso if I can make it work. Once again, thank you all for your kindness and support, I couldn't do this without you.

Also, happy DVD release day, everybody.

 _ **Inside Out**_ belongs to _**Disney*PIXAR.**_ If I manage to screw anything up in terms of grammar, characterization, or minor canonical details from the film proper, please feel free to tell me in the reviews or shoot me a PM. I genuinely appreciate your feedback on the story, and would love nothing more than to hear what you think about it.

* * *

Have you ever known what it's like to die?

I mean, not to sound like some guy who likes to wear more black than a vampire at a gothic funeral and regularly attends recitations of " _edgy_ " poetry about how " _the man_ " doesn't understand me at the world's most pretentious coffee shop, but have you ever known what it's like to have everything that's about you, a part of you, _you_ , snuffed out like a candle on a cold winter's night?

Then _you'd_ know what it's like to engage Core Personality Transfer.

As soon as the key clicked into place, Joy was already thrust headlong into the transfer process. A profound pain, almost exactly feeling as if someone was sticking a long, _needlessly_ pointy needle into the back of her head, sprung up instananeously. Now, Joy and her companions had occasionally dealt with headaches before ( _often times whenever the Console needed repair during awake hours_ ), but this was **nothing** she had ever experienced before. She immeditely clutches the back of her head, trying to dampen the horrid sensation unfamilliar to the feeling's feelings. It rocked across her metaphysical skull, causing the slight grunts of pain to escalate into a near-scream only required for whenever somebody was crying bloody murder. The pains only kept growing, embiggening and embiggening with each despicably intolerable second. It keeps going, going,,,

 _Gone_.

Almost mere minutes after experiencing the worst time of her life thus far, Joy could not bare the neruological headache of the gods, and ultimately passes out. Her near-lifeless body slumps over, falling back onto the floor of Headquarters with a noiseless impact.

... **Except she didn't stop falling**.

Joy knew something must have gone wrong when she started having armegeddon in her noggin, but what really set off the fact that she had made the screw-up of all screw-ups was that, once she hit the floor of Headquarters...she fell _through_.

It wasn't the floor's fault, in this case, seeing as she didn't feel a thing on the way down. Of course, last time she checked, she wasn't able to go through walls like an intangible spectre, but she had bigger things on her mind at the moment.

Namely, the deep, dank pit full of the memories that weren't good enough to stick with Riley for the long-haul currently rushing towards Joy at a million miles per hour.

To say that Joy was afraid of the Memory Dump was an understatement. I mean, it was a natural part of Riley ( _and it seemed more in line with Fear to have a phobia of the quasi-literal black hole that bordered their existence_ ), but, somewhere in Joy, she was instincively afraid of ever coming near the thing. It's almost like living just outside the rim of the Grand Canyon your entire life. You know the thing's there for a reason, you know what it does to things that go in the long way, and you know that you never **EVER** want to take the express route to the bottom.

Speaking of...

Joy couldn't stop flailing her limbs as she gained velocity towards the Dump, desperately trying to direct herself in mid-air away from the terrifying circumference of the void-like depths. She tried to scream on the way down, yet it almost seemed as if she never had a mouth to begin with as barren silence escaped her lips. The last five minutes of her life were horrifying, traumatizing, even. It all seemed like a great, big, horrible-

Nightmare.

 _...That's it!_ , she thought to herself. _This is all just a bad dream! I went to sleep with everybody else after Riley started sleeping and once I wake up, it'll be like nothing ever happened! Just gotta..._

Joy tried to pinch her arm, in the futile attempt of waking herself out of the horrible situation she just conspired and committed, yet, as hard as she tried to pinch herself awake...she didn't feel a thing. Not a single nerve of pain, not even the sensation of touching her own pointillistic flesh. It was alarming in the worst sense, worse than any nightmare she could conspire. She continually tries to wake herself from her living nightmare...only to realize that the obsidian void was coming closer, and closer..

Joy tried in vain to give a scream, a bare wimper of fear. As she approched the foggy glass abyss, her life started to flash before her eyes.

 _Riley, being born. Riley, seeing her parents for the first time. Riley, making her first companion in an almost magical elephant-dolphin-cat-man made of cotton candy. Riley, making her first real companion in Megan, from across the street. Riley, being out on the ice for the first time. Riley, scoring her first goal. Riley, playing her first genuinely real game of hockey._

 _Riley, aspiring her entire life for someone else's. Riley, stuck behind a screen and never truly being able to know what everything truly felt like. Riley, being told that her wishes were selfish in the eyes of the greater scheme of things when she cared as much as possible for those she loved. Riley, deciding that she'd never have this opportunity again. Riley, betting against the house and turning the-_

Joy slammed against the forgotten gains of the Memory Dump, smashing through layers and layers of memory at full speed. The memories shattered and capsized in on themselves, leaving a thick filter of grey, glass dust and fragments lingering through the mental air as she sank through.

She crossed over to the other side, and the biggest, brightest, whitest light greeted her as she hurdled through.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, In Headquarters...**_

 _...What the..._

Suffice to say, the alleged " _dreams_ " of Riley Andersen have been _veeerry_ perculiar tonight. I mean, I wouldn't consider it odd for a person's tired fantasies to go a tad off the handle when they've been on the road since about...5 A.M., and have basically been living off of the occasional mid-trip snack and road stop. And, it wasn't like Riley hasn't had stranger dreams before ( _there was the dream where her cousin's toys somehow came to life and performed...schenanigans that she couldn't frankly recall_ ), but it was tonight of all nights that something felt... _off_ , in a sense.

It started with some relatively decent fare. People were planes, she did some acrobatic stuffs, yadda yadda yadda, the kind of stuff you'd expect in a world where people were planes. Definitely odd, yet not the highlight of her night thus far.

What really made things intriguing, was how, for some reason this dream segwayed into a completely separate and contained dream.

Funny enough, Riley's never seen _Inception_. Don't know why I've decided to bring that up, but make of it what you will.

But, back to the dream. It was aroused through some, horrible shiver the girl felt. Definitely hurt for a few seconds, but as soon as she opened her eyes after closing them in pain, things had definitely changed.

For starters, she woke up on the floor, almost as if she passed out. Human again, except wearing nothing but an unfamilliar green dress that fit somewhat snugly on the girl, if not a touch too small. Second off, she woke up in this massive chamber, filled to the brim with various hues of purples and pinks.

Third, she couldn't help but notice the purple...thing...that looked as if it had just walked off the set of _The Muppet Show_ , looking dead at her...with the look of a man who just realized that he left the oven on before leaving the house.


	6. The Arrival (Bump In The Night)

_**Author's Note**_

Hey. Not much of a note with this one. Felt like responding to some of the reviews that we've gotten. Also, hope you guys like the _snazzy_ new cover. Had to fiddle with it a bit, but considering I'm more capable with pen and paper in lieu of an paintbrush and easel, it's good for now.

To _**Major Monty The Straw Vulcan**_ in response to his review on Chapter 5: Trust me, if you knew what really happens during the Transfer process beforehand...it would certainly make picking somebody to do it harder...

To _**PotterPhantomKitten**_ , also in response to Chapter 5: Thanks for correcting me on Riley's last name. Will try to clear that up when I get the chance. Also, wanted to thank you (and just about everybody else) for reading, and waiting out the break between chapters (Haituses are a heck of a drug). As I've said, we're keeping for at least one chapter a month in order to keep the ball rolling on this story.

To _**RussianMochi**_ , also on Chapter Five: I almost want to say that I genuinely thought of that Portal comparison beforehand, but, alas, I didn't catch it until everybody else did. Kudos, then.

And, lastly, to _**flarn2006**_ , Chapter 5: Well, Mr. Johnson, it could be worse. At least the moron who did this didn't manage to loose the Personality Cores in the middle of a critical operation...

Also, you made my day with that comment, Flarn. You officially win _**Best Review Of Chapter Five**_ ( _which is totally a real award and not something I just made up in order to congratulate you on such a witty review, seriously, well done_ )

 _ **Inside Out**_ belongs to _**Disney*PIXAR.**_ If I manage to screw anything up in terms of grammar, characterization, or minor canonical details from the film proper, please feel free to tell me in the reviews or shoot me a PM. I genuinely appreciate your feedback on the story, and would love nothing more than to hear what you think about it.

* * *

Now, you may think that this would be the point where I'd immediately jump into our _happy_ little girl meeting up with the long-lost twice-removed cousin of _The Great Gonzo_ , yet, I cannot help but feel as if I may have cheated you all by practically glossing over the initial few moments of Riley's arrival. In fear of both repeating myself and potentially making some of the following chapter utterly redundant, I've decided to make an executive decision which basically boils down to " _Screw it, I'm the author, I call the shots_."

So, let's turn the clock back a few moments, shall we?

* * *

"...What was that?!"

Fear immediately sprung up from his bed, clutching the plush bear in a way that one would describe as an " _uber-mega death hold_ _ **of death**_ _."_ His body was as straight and as rigid as a flagpole, his breathing as rapid as a man who had decided to get into a contest with another man over how much carbon dioxide the other could produce in five seconds.

For the last hour or so, it had seemed as if he was to actually get a decent night's sleep, and for all intents and purposes, he was more than willing to embrace that fact. However, it seems that whatever ancient mental Sumerian trickster god that just so happened to end up passing by Riley's head had taken note of the purple beanpole, and decided to will a bloodcurdling scream into existence, that just so happened to sound like one of his coworkers.

Fear, grasping the bear like it was his only lifeline, surveys the room from his covers. He starts to anxiously whisper to himself.

" _Okay, okay, pull yourself together, Fear. It was just a scream...that came from outside and sounded like_ **JOYOHMYGOSHIAMNOTPREPAREDFORTHIS** -"

He curls up for a moment, completely in a state of total distress. He tries to slow down his breathing, reassuring himself of everything being A-okay.

Furthest thing away from the truth at the moment, but he doesn't know that... _yet_.

" _Calm down, Fear. You know that there's nothing in Headquarters that can hurt you..._ "

He immediately glances over at Anger, who happens to be muttering about... _something_ , in his sleep.

 _...Strike that thought._

Fear vaguely straightens up again in his bed, his posture slightly bent over. The clutch on his fuzzy comrade lessening as he tries to put his anxieties to rest for the moment.

" _Just...think rationally. There's nothing in Headquarters that can hurt Riley, and that scream can't be a sign of anything wrong, right? I mean, for all you know, maybe it came from the dream.._."

Fear can't help but doubt himself...

" _...Then again, Joy's never been in a dream before. So, that must mean that either she's watching a nightmare,_ _I'm_ _having a nightmare, or this is all just some big old prank that Joy's decided to pull after getting bored. Either way...I'm.._ "

He gulps.

" _...going to see if anybody's willing to check it out with me_."

He, after some apprehension, sets the bear down and gets from his bed ( _not before fixing it back up, of course_ ).

Talk about a genuine scare cocktail, eh? Middle of the night, everybody's asleep, and you hear the cries of one of your fondest coworkers, almost as if they were being flippedy murdered? Odds are practically stacked against the little guy.

...We'll check back in with him later...

* * *

 _Wake Up._

Riley Andersen quickly and almost immediately opened her eyes, an almost yet not quite distressed look on her face as she gasped for air, almost not unlike a fish. She jerked awake, not entirely sure of what had just happened, or where she even was to begin with.

A slight touch of abrasion touched Riley's internal lobe, the vaguest feeling of numbness and deja-vu immediately being at the forefront of her thoughts.

The immediate sight of the gentle purple ceiling, juxtaposed with the vague carpet-y feeling under her head and toes-

 _...What?_

Riley somewhat wearily lifts her head from the metaphysical floor, confirming the fact that she had somehow found herself barefoot after distinctly remembering that she had, at least, worn socks in addition to her usual pajamas to the motel bed that night. How her change in venue wasn't the first thing she felt off about is to anybody's guess.

Speaking of things we didn't remember doing last night, Riley looks up, at the rest of her body.

 _...Wh..What am I wearing?_

A slight groan comes from the girl as she tries to somewhat help herself off the floor on legs that felt like they were made of strawberry Jell-O, wobbling for a moment as she regains her balance. She looks back down at herself again.

Instead of the somewhat haggardly-in-comparison combination of an old T-shirt her mom gave her and a pair of pajama pants, it was...

"A..dress?"

The garment itself was rather decent. A lime green dress, with the occasional smattering of blue lines here and there. Two straps at the top, the piece of apparel went down a bit past the girl's knees and, for some reason, felt vaguely snug, if not a touch tight. The feel of the dress was a strange sort of cotton, familiar yet completely the opposite. It wasn't exactly her style, in all honesty. Then again, she didn't have a choice in the matter...which brought another question to the girl's mind.

 _...Am I still dreaming? I mean, this still has to be a dream, right? You don't wake up in weird clothes, in some weird place without any reason._

The girl looked up from her new duds, noticing the full room around her and the vibrancy of the colors and structures within, all looking somewhat cartoonish in nature. Heck, one could likely say that it looked like something out of a _Disney_ flick. Regardless, it all but confirmed her suspicions at this point.

 _...Yeah, I'm still dreaming._

Before she could further contemplate the nature of her own consciousness further, she couldn't help but feel her attention being grabbed by something within the massive chamber. Specifically, the strange, pedestal-esc structure standing before her...

* * *

" _Disgust...Disgust! Wake up!"_

Fear stood hunched over at the canopied bed of his broccoli-esc compatriot, his coworker currently in the middle of her beauty sleep. Obviously, Fear's attempts at trying to wake her up were on par with that of a child trying to wake up their parents _too flippedy early_ in the morning and trying their darndest not to wake them up at the same time. So, pretty much ineffectual.

The slight snore and the vaguest mumble about something involving _candy_ of all things is an obvious indicator that Fear was nowhere near waking her up. Still, he tries again.

" _Disgust! Disgust! Can you hear me?_ "

Still, no cigar.

" _Dang-it!"_

Fear pulled his head out front inside the green canopy, a look of vague uncomfortable uncomfort upon his mug. Things were clearly not looking in his favor, seeing as he tested the wakefulness level of his three currently-comatose roommates, and the best reaction from the three seemed to be an unconscious left-hook to the gut courtesy of the sleeping fire brick from off in the corner.

" _Alright, Fear,"_ he starts whispering to himself. " _Everybody's asleep, there might be something dangerous loose in Headquarters, and you're the only person who can deal with it. You've got two options._ "

He looks over at his bed.

" _On one hand, you could go back to bed, get a good night's sleep, and wait until everybody is awake to deal with what's going on..._ "

He glances at the door leading to the main chamber.

 _"...On the other, you could go out, find a murderer or something, and save yourself before he strikes again!_ "

He cycles between the two for a few moments, before making his mind.

" _Maybe just a peak...to be sure?_ "

He starts to make his way to the door, gently tip-toeing his way across the room. He makes it, locking up for a moment as his hand touches the door handle. By about now, that bed was the equivalent to an oasis in the middle of the Gobi for Fear. At this point, he probably would have felt comfortable at most any place on Earth instead of facing down that door.

Still, knowing the fact he had little options in the matter, he turns the doorknob, and slowly peaks out the door.

All seemed normal. The screen had gone blank, so either the dream ended early, or Joy had decided to watch _another_ memory and must have forgotten to put the dream back on when she sent it back down.

 _Seems alright,_ Fear thought. _Riley's asleep, Joy's not at the console, Riley's in the middle of Headquarters_ _ **MESSING WITH HER CORE MEMORIES SWEETMOTHEROFJANGLESTHISISNOPENOPEABORTABORT-**_

Fear was in immediate anguish over the sight he was seeing. Of all the things that gave him shivers, this sight gave him goosebumps the size of Texas.

Fortunately enough, she hadn't noticed him embracing insanit-

"...Hello?"

Fear piped up for a moment.

" _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH**_

 _ **HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**_

 _ **HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**_ _ **HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_ "


	7. The Discovery (Pete's Groovy Home Movie)

_**Author's Note**_

Well, I think I'm gonna call it now folks. I don't quite think that setting myself for a "chapter a month" quota is going to work, considering I was actually intending to get this chapter out before Christmas before my laptop crapped out on me and it took the entirety of my Christmas break to get the flippedy thing fixed. Think we'll just play it by ear out of fear for more technical hook-ups and my own well-being.

Either way, we're back. I've read every single review of the last chapter thus far, and have henceforth decided NOT to repeatedly return to previous ramblings and end up confusing everybody with revised plot points. Time's a linear beast of burden, and therefore ( _unlike the wishes of a certain metaphysical mind-sprite in a more canotical timeline_ ) we must move from our pasts and towards the future.

So, let's deliberate for a few more seconds with the help of our disclaimer, shall we?

 _ **Inside Out**_ belongs to _**Disney*PIXAR.**_ If I manage to screw anything up in terms of grammar, characterization, or minor canonical details from the film proper, please feel free to tell me in the reviews or shoot me a PM. I genuinely appreciate your feedback on the story, and would love nothing more than to hear what you think about it.

* * *

 _ **AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-**_

Fear's continued screams, not unlike that of a banshee caught in a beartrap or an acrophobic gentleman strapped to a bungee chord and yo-yoing off of an exceedingly vertical structure of some kind, were continuous, panicked, and most certainly disturbed. In all genuine honesty, this worrysome wail was going rather long for the raw nerve ending of a man. One might say that Fear was 90% lungs and 10% other nifty bits at this point, but that's not the point whatsoever.

Riley stood off, over by the central memory conduit where she had awoken only a few moments prior. To be frank, she was already starting to grow tired of the uni-haired emotion's senseless screaming, having taken a touch more interest in the saccharine-seeming orbs that were shafted to the column before her, the unstoppable glow (almost like the beams that could only emerge from the Sun on a midsummer's afternoon) and vague, almost recognizable images repeating ad nauseum acting almost akin to the light of an angler fish.

Still, as much as she wanted to check these items further, it wouldn't hurt to try to attempt further contact, right? I mean, it WAS a dream after all. Meg had occasionally talked about how her mom had seen somebody that told her that dreams always have stuff in them that stands for...stuff. Maybe it wouldn't hurt?

Riley looks back up at Fear, whose primal wail has toned itself down, definitely.

"...Hey!"

Fear shuts his trap immediately, observing the walking, talking impossibility before him.

"...Are you okay?"

Fear gulped.

 _Okay, just play it cool, calm, and relaxed. Nothing's wrong, everything is awesome, and you're not currently planning an elaborate escape plan involving digging yourself out of Headquarters using spoons from the Break Room, moving to Imagination Land, and changing your name to Brent!_

Fear clears this throat...and promptly starts bombing.

"Me?...Oh...I'm fine...perfectly fine, ab-so-lutely fine. I'm so fine, you could fill a pool with pure, concentrated fine...ness, and I'd still be more fine than that. I'm as fine as a cucumber!"

He slightly walks up to the DNA-esc railing of the upper level connecting to the bedroom, leaning on it and attempting to hide his inner pandemonium as much as possible.

 _Alright...This is going much better than I thought! We might just make it out of this conversation alive!_

Riley looked at him, somewhat confusedly.

"Don't you mean ' _cool_ ' as a cucumber?"

Fear looked distressed, backing away from the double-helix railing and pulling his hands closer to himself.

"Well...I...Uhh.."

 _ **SHOOT.**_

Riley tries to help him shrug it off, somewhat waving it off.

"It's fine. Say, what's your name?"

"M-my..name?"

 _ **DOUBLE. SHOOT.**_

Fear tugged at the collar of his nightshirt, sweating bullets as the girl kept being inquisitive of the personification's details. Things were definitely not going well...

"Well...uhh..."

 _Alright, Fear. You CANNOT tell her your real name. Just think of something cool!_

"...Something cool?"

Riley couldn't help but cock her head slightly and pull back a tad. This dream was getting freakier by the second...

"Really?"

 _Come on! Think of something!_

"No!-I mean, it is, but it isn't-but I-"

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Riley starts taking a step or two away from her previous post towards Fear, him pulling back an equal amount. Fear puts a hand on the back of his neck as he starts backing up.

"Uh-uh, yeah! Just gotta go..grab..something-"

A slight " _YIPE!_ " escapes from Fear as he makes a mad dash for the bedroom, the doors behind him blowing in front of him for a moment before quickly returning to their original positions.

Riley couldn't help but raise a brow at the exchange ( _or lack thereof_ ) she had just shared with the exceedingly odd Mr. " _Something Cool_." A part of her almost genuinely wanted to go after the perculiar figure, almost like a regular _Alice_ -type, chasing after some irregular irregularity and getting into mischief and schenanigans and what-not. Yet, a part of her was more than willing to returning to her businesses, feeling sure she'd run into him ( _or was it an it?_ ) again.

So, her mind set, she turns face to lock eyes at the conduit. She starts walking towards the thing, almost as if in a trance, like the thing was practically calling out to her. _Come, Riley,_ the thing metaphorically beckoned. _Come, and-_

...And it's at this point the author has voluntarily decided to abort the previous hyperbole in the name of good taste. Trust me, you're better off.

Regardless, Riley made her way to the column.

 _...Huh._

Standing tall above the thing, she immediately couldn't help but notice the piece of the device sticking out from the top, almost akin to a pickle jar lid on a hinge. Of course, it looked and felt nothing like that of a pickle jar lid, yet the comparison stands. She leans in, staring down at the inner contents of the conduit. All that remained within was nothing but a keyhole, a glass casing on a hinge that protected the hole...and a few black specks, almost looking like ash from a freshly-erradicated fire, lingering inside and slightly around the circumference of the opening.

 _A keyhole? Is this thing locked or something?_

She sees the outer lid once more.

 _...Maybe it shouldn't be open?_

She wasn't exactly sure what the purpose of the secret compartment lumped within the structure was ( _heck, she barely even knew what this thing was to begin with!_ ), yet it looked important. I mean, if at least 10 years of avid TV watching taught her anything, it was that important things usually kept themselves hidden.

Then again, she had also " _learned_ " that most modern monsters were either just a greedy land developer or _Old Man Jenkins_ in a mask, so there's a counterpoint to that. Either way, there was something more pressing at the second...

She leans down to stare at the orbs, all as radiant as the polish of a well-shined shoe, and immediately one stands out to her, among the rest.

The atherial video within contained three figures, two clearly taller than and at the dueling sides of the third, shot from at least the waist-upwards, eating...something, inferringly. The figure front and center was dressed in more vibrant colors than the other two, and looked somewhat almost familiar, yet she couldn't quite lay a finger on whether her mind was playing tricks on her. The figure on the right vaguely looked as if she had been wearing glasses, and the figure on the right had a massive, almost fuzzy-ish mass under his n- **OH MY GOD.**

A look of inital intrigue draws her closer in to confirm her immediate suspicion. The characters in the orb were clearly meant to be her and her family, the only major exceptions in this case being that A). The being meant to inferringly be her looked to be about 2-3-ish, and B). the whole thing looked like it came straight out of a PIXAR flick; fluid, lifelike movement with softer, more caricaturized people.

 _Mom?...Dad?_

It was freaky, almost like an atherially rotoscoped home video that had never been recorded, yet seemed to be vivid in almost every single detail. A part of her was curious to see if the other orbs within the conduit were different or the same, yet...

 _...Is this real? Was this something that happened?_

The eternal questioning of her own memories rang true for a few seconds. She could vaguely remember portions of her early childhood (and potentially even the events that were running eternal within the orb), yet the quandry still rang true. Is this a reality? A memory long gone? A fantastically realistic construction of her dream? Almost immediately, another thought came to mind...

 _...Can I..._

Riley starts to reach for the sphere wedged into one of the pockets within the conduit, her head cocking slighty to one side out of curiosity and a vague sense of wonder. She touches the orb, it casting a strange sensation of both coolness and warmth at the same time. Almost immediately, a flood of images started to bombard the girl's cerebral cortex.

 _...Wait...I remember this! It was in March-No, April! Mom had baked cookies earlier that day. Dad didn't help in making them, but then again, he's not the best cook around..._

This was... _amazing_. Simply laying a hand on the thing couldn't help but flood Riley's noggin with positively-charged waves of pure, unadulterated nostalgia for that one moment in time, the sensation was packed with a semi-euphoria almost akin to something along the lines of hearing the content purring of a feline, or the song of the moment that gives one goosebumps so badly that the only logical reaction was to play the sucker fifteen times over to get it out of one's system. Either way, dopamine was running like an Olympian at the Running of the Bulls.

 _...And you wouldn't believe the assortment she had made! I mean, we've tried better later on, but it was the first time we tried double-chocolate chip! I mean, it was_ _ **TWICE**_ _the chip! You don't just see that sort of thing every day! Riley-_

Suddenly, a large thump wrecks itself from the door that Fear had hastily gotten away from moments prior, the sound of what happened after a non-lethal death blow ringing through the atherial atmosphere. Riley can't help but jump back in sheer fright, her hand jerking away from the memory quicker than the average attention span of other kids her age. She backs away slightly, clutching her arms to her chest and trying to be as quiet as humanly possible as she observes the railing above.

A grizzled, almost DeVito-esc voice sounds out as she notices an odd, red mass shambling out of the doors from earlier.

"How many **TIMES** have I told you **NOT** to wake us up unless you're completely, absolutely sure that something's going wrong now?"

Anger, obviously, was not in the best of moods upon being woken up in the middle of the night by his coworker, mumbling on about some incoherent, almost insipidly stupid phobia that just so happened to pop into his consciousness that night. A light smoke starts to linger over Anger's head as Fear starts to try to pop his spine back into its' proper position.

"Anger, listen to me! We have a massive problem right now!"

" **YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A MASSIVE PROBLEM IF I DON'T GET BACK TO BED!** "

"Hey! What's going on out here? Can't a person get some beauty sleep around here?"

The two feuding emotions pull aside for a moment to view the disgruntled face of Disgust pop into view in the slight window by the doorway. Ironically, the word beauty serves no meaning in this case, considering the "exhalation" mask slathered upon Disgust's face would have likely arisen cries of her namesake in response.

Anger turns over to Disgust, his tone calming down...somewhat.

"Oh, I'll tell ya! Fear had a nightmare, and now, instead of actually getting a decent night's sleep, I'm ' _checking his bed_!'"

Anger's tone takes a condescending note as he brings up his perception of Fear's predicament.

"I didn't have a nightmare! I'm legitimately trying to tell you that-"

"That what? You wanted to wake everybody up for a midnight game of checkers?!"

"No! Besides, that literally makes no sense!"

" **YOU LITERALLY MAKE NO SENSE!** "

Disgust makes an audible sigh of pure detestment as she starts making her way down to her collegues.

"Okay! Everybody, just cut it out for one second, please?"

The other two emotions promptly shut up, Anger mumbling one of the few curse words he knew under his beath. Disgust turns to Fear.

"Now, Fear, what's wrong?"

Fear takes a step towards her, his anxiety melting away for a few seconds.

"Thank you, Disgust. It's nice to know that **SOMEBODY** actually cares about what really matters at the moment."

"Yeah, yeah, just get to what's bothering you so that we can all go back to sleep and pretend that this never happened, okay?"

Fear slinks back down for a moment.

"Alright. I know this sounds utterly insane but-"

Anger chimes in.

" **JUST GET ON WITH IT!** "

"Riley's-"

Suddenly, a loud, ominious tone emerges from over the core memory conduit. All of the emotions jerk their heads over to find what would be potentially the worst sight humanly possible to see that night.

Riley, the quasi-literal flesh and blood that symbiotically gave them life, standing smack dab in the middle of Headquarters and _**HOLDING FAMILY ISLAND'S CORE MEMORY**_.


End file.
